James Dougherty

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James Edward Dougherty (April 12, 1921 in Los Angeles, California - August 15, 2005 in San Rafael, California) was an American author, Los Angeles Police Department sharpshooter, World War II veteran, and best known for being the first husband of Marilyn Monroe.

[edit] Biography

Dougherty and Marilyn Monroe

Dougherty was the youngest of five children of Edward and Ethel Dougherty, who had moved there from Colorado. He attended Van Nuys High School where he acted in plays, and played football.

Marilyn Monroe and Dougherty married on June 19, 1942, eighteen days after Norma Jeane turned sixteen.

In 1943, Dougherty joined the United States Merchant Marine (where he served alongside Robert Mitchum). He was ordered to boot camp on Santa Catalina Island, California, then sent overseas in 1944. Norma Jeane started to work for Radioplane Company, where she was discovered. She moved out of her mother-in-law's home and stopped writing to Dougherty. She filed for divorce in Las Vegas, Nevada; it was finalized on September 13, 1946.

Dougherty married Patricia Scoman in 1947, and joined the LAPD. He was one of the police officers who held back the crowd at the premiere of his former wife's movie, The Asphalt Jungle.

In The Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe and To Norma Jeane with Love, Jimmie, he claimed they were in love but dreams of stardom lured her away. She always maintained theirs was a marriage of convenience. She was furious when he claimed to Photoplay in 1953 she threatened to jump off the Santa Monica Pier if he left her. He later appeared on To Tell the Truth as "Marilyn Monroe's real first husband". He sold signed copies of his books on his website [1].

In the 2004 documentary Marilyn's Man, Dougherty made three new claims: he was her Svengali and invented "Marilyn Monroe", Fox forced her to divorce him, and he was her true love. The evidence does not support this. When informed of her death, the New York Times reported that Dougherty replied "I'm sorry" and continued his LAPD patrol; he did not attend her funeral. He admitted to A&E Network his mother asked him if he'd marry Norma Jeane. Although he maintained in his books that he didn't mind if she modeled, his sister wrote in the 12/1952 Modern Screen Magazine he left Norma Jeane because she wanted to pursue modeling. He admitted to Lifetime's "Intimate Portrait" that he cut off her monthly allotment when he was served with divorce papers.